In general, in stores such as supermarkets and convenience stores, selling prices of products are under centralized control with the use of a product master stored in a point-of-sale (POS) system or the like. On the other hand, indication of selling prices to customers (consumers) is achieved by shelf labels formed of paper which are placed in respective positions of products. However, human errors such as errors in selling prices are likely to occur because shelf labels formed of papers as above can not be managed without the help of manpower. For this reason, a selling price different from that of a product master may possibly be indicated to customers.
In order to overcome the foregoing disadvantages, in recent years, an electronic shelf label system (ESL system) has been put into practical use. In an electronic shelf label system, electronic shelf labels for including display parts are placed at each position of products. Then, a selling price based on a product master is transmitted to each of the electronic shelf labels, and displayed on a display part of each of the electronic shelf labels. As a result, correct selling prices can be indicated to customers (refer to Patent document 1, for example). A server of an electronic shelf label system stores a link file in which device codes unique to respective electronic shelf labels are associated with product codes of respective products, respectively. The link file associates respective electronic shelf labels with respective products, in the form of data, so that selling prices of products can be distributed to their corresponding electronic shelf labels, respectively.
In the above-described electronic shelf label system, a process to associate respective electronic shelf labels with respective products (an associating process) is needed at the time of installation, or at a case in which change of selling products occurs. A worker performs operation for acquiring a device code and a product code at the associating process in order to generate data of the link file.
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-265196
However, according to the conventional method, when acquiring a product code of a product which is not registered in the product master at the associating process, information to be displayed (such as selling prices and the like) on the electronic shelf labels cannot be acquired. Therefore, in the conventional method, such a product code is determined to be input failure, and the associating process is not performed. Namely, the associating process cannot be performed in a store until receiving the final product master from a head office, causing delay in layout of products.
In a selling floor where products and electronic shelf labels are placed, workers cannot learn that products that are targets of the associating process are not registered in the product master. Accordingly, workers cannot update the product master by themselves, and also cannot prompt the head office managing each store to update the product master, resulting in the situation where update of the product master is not performed immediately.